More User Reviews:

Nice to see New Belgium stuff in the supermarkets aroung Greensboro.Poured into an overiseized wine glass a deep brown like cola color with a great one finger off white head,just creamy looking with great definition,nearly a five.Aromas were a little light but pleasant,bitter chocolate,clove,and black licorice were what I picked up most.Highly drinkable with subtle complexity on the palate,bitter chocolate and dry earthy tones with some licorice-like flavors,the sweetness is kept in check well but lends good balance.A damn fine brew,I liked it more than I thought I would.

Appearance  Nice, darkened head which fades a little too fast but leaves a nice lacing inside the glass. The color is a deep, dark maroon - almost black.

Smell  Pleasant cocoa fragrance with a hint of coffee.

Taste  The cocoa comes out in the taste as well, followed by a coffee/malt flavor and a slight nutty tone. The dark nature of this beer compliments the burnt caramel at the end.

Mouthfeel  A little flat. Even though this is not a carbonated style of beer, I thought it could be a tad livelier.

Drinkability  This beer goes down smooth. Its complexity keeps one entertained, but the mediocre mouthfeel makes it a touch bland.

Comments  New Belgium puts out a lot of good brews, so I was somewhat disappointed with this bottle. It has some good flavors but was flat and uninspiring, a step down from some of their finer efforts.

Deep dark brown that hints at ruby. Thin off white head with ok lacing. Big-huge black malts dominate smell and taste. A blend between a Schwartz and a Belgian Dark? Sweetish of the brown sugar variety. Medium bodied. Mild acidity and medium to assertive chalkiness. Drinkability is low for me. Too malt driven and sweet yet uncomplex. I would prefer a real Schwartz or a more complicated Belgian. This one is stuck in the middle.

Pours a very dark brown, ruby red color; allows quite a bit of light to shine through. Tan head, nice staying power, leaving a little bit of lacing on the way down. Some toasted caramel malts on the nose, mild grape sweetness; bready, yeasty, a bit dry with a touch of toasted grains. A mild, nearly wine-like character comes out on the first sip, possibly from the mesh of the light grape flavor and the warmth from the alcohol. It slowly turns into a dry and toasted bread and malt profile with a bit of caramel appearing in the latter half. Some dry cocoa and chocolates are heavy in the aftertaste. Hops are surprisingly vibrant, more so than I was expecting, remaining leafy and ashy in character and providing a slightly bitter bite to balance out the sweetness from the malt overload. Some very faint spice is detectable as well, especially as the brew warms up; similar to clove, it is most likely a characteristic of the Belgian yeast used, although it is still very toned down. Medium body, medium-heavy carbonation.

Tasty little brew here; BSDAs are usually more my speed, but this is a very solid non-strong interpretation, and I could definitely throw back a few of these, one after another.

A: A creamy, tan head that leave fine lacing on the glass with good retention. A dark brown beer with good clarity.

S: A lightly fruity and spicy, yeast aroma with a medium-low chocolate and coffee notes. A low earthy hop aroma and a light malt sweetness.

T: A smooth, medium chocolate and coffee malt flavor with some malt sweetness in the middle balanced by an equal hops bitterness. A light earthy hops flavor. There are light fruit esters of plum and apricot with a mild spice flavors, mostly a black pepper, maybe a bit all-spice like. The balance is a about even but the beer is fairly dry on the whole with a dry finish.

M: A medium-full bodied beer with a medium level of carbonation. A cool crispness to the body.

O: There is a lot of porter character in this beer with a light Belgian-like twist which made a lot more sense when I read that the yeast is handled like a Steam Beer by fermenting a lager yeast at higher temperatures. A hard to place beer but hard to forget, I've been looking forward to another bottle of this for almost four years.

This is a black to dull maple to ruby colored beer with a thin layer of malted-milk head that leaves spider-webs of lace on the sides of the glass. The smells are cherry skin, a tickle of acrid burnt grain, light brown sugar, slight yeastiness, and earthy hops. It reminded of scotch ale on a sniff or two and the entire bouquet had a kind of fresh-baked quality.

The taste starts with tounge-bracing burnt grain and then coffee and milk chocolate smooth things over, blending with a pronounced nutt flavor and well-played hop bitter. Once again that baked feeling comes out in the aftertaste, on the heels on New Belgium's signature toasted character. Mouthfeel starts light but fluffs up in the mouth with a burst of carbonation. Kinda cool. This is a must-try for any fan of schwarzbier. It isn't nearly so mellow, but you'll love the flavor.

Pours sort of heavy, as black as it's namesake, with practically no head to speak of. There is a thin ring of light brown bubbles that persistently cling to the sides of the glass. No lacing noted.

Aromas are very malty with hints of coffee and dark fruit. Perhaps a little bit of smoke in there too. It just has an implication of "sweet" about it, but this isn't derogatory... rather pleasant in fact.

Heavy on the tongue, sweet and malty, with some complicated darker flavors reminiscent of, say, figs. Chocolate notes are there too, working well with everything else but especially with the complicated sweetness. Honestly, this sort of reminds me of a heavy black lager or lighter milk stout. Interesting. Finish is cleaner than expected with lingering chocolate & coffee.

Smooth texture, very light carbonation, and some weight from the residual sweetness makes the overall mouthfeel rather smooth and 'creamy', if you will. It's a bit heavy, but very pleasant and goes down incredibly easy.

Very nice brew. Recommended. This is a very interesting brew and rather enjoyable.

Pours a dark, reddish brown with an off white head. Aroma of toasted nuts and milk chocolate. Medium bodied with light carbonation and sweet caramel taste with a light chocolate after taste. Gets a little cloying towards the end, but overall a great beer.

A very good beer. Poured from a bottle with Best By 11/08 on the label, the beer was a very dark brown with red highlights. The head was off-white and thick, and dissipated fairly quickly. I wasn't too impressed with the aroma, sweet chocolate, not much else. The taste, though, made up for the relatively mild aroma. Fruit, chocolate, a little coffee and roasted malt. Easy drinking, and at 5.5% ABV, one could put a few of these away.

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a nonic pint. Pours a dark, cola color with a single-finger, foamy, tan head. The head persists and leaves a lovely lacing down the entire length of the glass.

The aroma is very pleasant, lots of yeasty bread, with a hint of chocolate and dark fruit.

The taste is excellent. Caramel, toffee right up front with alittle yeast. Then some coffee notes, a little raisin and finally, a little late dark chocolate bitternes. Reminds me a bit of a good doppelbock.

The mouthfeel is amazing. It's smooth, almost creamy and a little sticky.